Qaminante

Strange connections

2012-02-01T22:18:00.001+01:00

Where does the time go? I was in London. And then I was back in Brussels. And now it's February! And despite having bought (mumble) books in London, I just happened to find myself browsing on Amazon, which I like to check for recommendations of new books about to come out. But I will never understand how the recommendation system works. For example, it thinks I might be interested in this:

Emotional Vampires: Dealing With People Who Drain You Dry
by Albert J. Bernstein (1 April 2002)

BECAUSE.....

"Recommended because you added The Sultan's Kitchen: A Turkish Cookbook to your Wish List"

Now why on earth would they assume someone interested in Turkish food might need to deal with emotional vampires?!

Sign of the times

2012-01-02T00:30:00.001+01:00

But who will go which way?

New Year windows

2012-01-01T18:11:00.005+01:00

Happy New Year 2012!

2012-01-01T18:05:00.007+01:00

A happy and healthy new year to all (consuming these only with the eyes, then!)

For some reason, in Belgium it's traditional to eat heart-shaped cakes at this time.

Last post for Christmas (2011)

2011-12-31T22:41:00.004+01:00

Christmas tree, Avenue G. Henri

Galeries St. Hubert

Christmas reindeer ice-cream cake (coffee and vanilla!)

More Christmas windows

2011-12-31T22:17:00.005+01:00

Stationery shop

"Merry Christmas" from the local café

"Happy holidays" from the Italian shop

Christmas windows

2011-12-30T21:27:00.004+01:00

Children's clothes shop

Irish pub (Michael Collins)

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T17:39:00.006+01:00

I'm back - how is everyone? I had a horrendous year at work which almost caused me to have a nervous breakdown, but now I'm freeeeeeee : well, almost - I won't feel as though I have finally extracted myself until the end of January when my office will be reorganised and I will have completed the handover (haha).

Now I will have more time for things like this, which I have shamefully neglected. Here are some photos of Christmas in Brussels, first the Electrabel Nights show from the Grand' Place and second, the "City Ski" ski slope at Mont des Arts.

It's artificially made snow as we haven't had snow (yet) this year - although we did have some sleet a week ago, which gave me a slippery walk home late at night. The ski slope is located next to the Albertine Gardens and headquarters of Europalia Brazil (which, with different decorations, was also the headquarters of Europalia China), which I haven't got around to visiting yet.

Maru the Cat

2011-08-01T20:37:00.002+02:00

This is the last gift I received from Sabine - a good friend I never met - who left us on 1 July. Thanks for making me laugh, Sabine, and at such a time.

Cairo: Hotel Marriott

2011-02-07T00:55:00.005+01:00

It's funny, I've only been to Cairo once before, many years ago, and I stayed at exactly the same hotel, the Cairo Marriott which is housed partly in a palace of the former Khedive. On that occasion my meeting was at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is the white building shown here, actually on the other side of the Nile.

In the Garden Café you can order a breakfast called "the Continental gentleman" - but I couldn't quite bring myself to ask for one! Cost, 105 EGP which is about €11.

Back from Cairo

2011-01-30T23:48:00.006+01:00

Bang up to date now - Happy New Year! I just got back from Cairo on Friday, we were lucky to leave when we did - I really hope things settle down there soon and that it all works out for the best. As usual I only had time to do much "sight-seeing" at night and my little camera isn't the best for coping with that!

Catching up - Christmas and before

2011-01-30T23:01:00.015+01:00

And then it snowed A LOT. And then it was 2011....

Christmas decorations in Brussels were not brilliant this year, and the Electrabel Nights show in the Grand' Place was very disappointing.

Trip to Maastricht just before Christmas: I was told the Selexyz bookshop, housed in a former Dominican church, was the most beautiful in Europe - but I disagree (this one, in Porto, Portugal, is the most beautiful I have seen so far)!

Back to Brussels, and more negotiations in the new Mont des Arts conference centre, "The Square".

In Brasilia for negotiations with Mercosur

Catching up - Europalia China

2011-01-30T21:58:00.012+01:00

Europalia takes place in Brussels every other year, but from Sept/October of odd years to Feb/March in even years, so in fact it is on every year. In October 2011, Europalia Brazil will be starting already, but at the beginning of 2010 I went to a number of the exhibitions on China. My favourite "event" was the tea house in the Dynastie building at the foot of the Mont des Arts, which was exceptionally open to the public, and fetchingly decorated for the occasion with 5000 lanterns.

The "Son of Heaven" Exhibition at the Palais des Beaux Arts displayed some fantastic porcelain, manuscripts, textiles and objets d'art, and "The Three Dreams of the Mandarin" was largely about writing and Chinese brush painting. One of the great things about Europalia is that in addition to the official exhibitions, concerts and so on, local shops also get in on the act: Wittamer made a chocolate version of one of the terracotta warriors (for Europalia Mexico they made a chocolate cake in the shape of an Aztec pyramid - can't wait to see what they do for Brazil!), and another shop was selling Chinese lanterns.

And then to Brasilia

2010-12-10T00:08:00.000+01:00

Not quite as nice as in Rio ...

Interpreters in goldfish bowls!

Quick trip to Rio de Janeiro

2010-12-09T00:26:00.011+01:00

View from rooftop bar of the Windsor Excelsior Hotel, Copacabana.

It's a hard life, but someone's gotta do it...

Trip to Rotterdam

2010-06-29T00:22:00.002+02:00

Su Gologone

2010-05-05T09:34:00.013+02:00

OK, not quite finished with Sardinia after all! Was talking to someone yesterday about this hotel, Su Gologone near Oliena in the Barbagia region which is the heart of Sardinia (location). Charming place, named after a local spring.

Nice weather in Nice!

2010-05-04T23:50:00.003+02:00

Fantastic pictures of stormy seas in the South of France, on here - click on "diaporama" (slideshow) under the photo of a lorry in the snow. Bit of a surprise for May.

Sardinia: "suite et fin" (the end!)

2010-05-03T22:44:00.008+02:00

European, Sardinian and Italian flags

The giant's tomb, Arzachena

Donatella

La Maddalena

Santissima Trinità di Saccargia

Window in Alghero

Sardinia: the Sequel

2010-04-30T22:44:00.007+02:00

Could it be Yorkshire?

Bosa: River Temo and Castle of Malaspina

S. Giovanni Tower, Sinis Peninsula

Tharros

The beach at Nora (no that's not me - wish it were!)

Some More Sardinia

2010-04-29T22:33:00.006+02:00

The ramparts at Alghero

Coast near Capo Caccia

Hmm, Padre Pio or Hello Kitty, which should I choose?

What you get for ordering meat in a fish restaurant!

2010-04-29T22:05:00.006+02:00

Palau - clearly showing why the nearby coastline is called Costa Smeralda (emerald coast).

From Palau, a ferry crosses to the island of La Maddalena - where the G8 summit was going to be held before Berlusconi moved it to L'Aquila after the April 2009 earthquake, leaving the local authorities holding the bill for the unfinished conference centre and other facilities that were being prepared for the summit.... This is part of the Maddalena archipelago, and La Maddalena itself is connected by causeway to the island of Caprera where Garibaldi ended his days.

Stunning Sardinia

2010-04-23T23:59:00.007+02:00

I'm not sure where February and March went, but this is where I was in April!

Baggage

2010-01-16T01:04:00.003+01:00

"The Filthy Critic" likes flying for the same reason as the character played by George Clooney in "Up in the Air" (not that I've seen it yet). He says ".. you are untethered, free from all the anchors of a daily, pointless existence. You may be on your way to another pointless existence, but at least it's a new one and its pointlessness has yet to be revealed. If you're traveling, you are not weighed down by the people and obligations you've committed to..."
I'd noticed that somehow when travelling I feel less encumbered - well, apart from those occasions when the airline decides to separate you from the baggage you do have with you, when you feel more weighed down, not less!

Video version

2010-01-12T21:28:00.001+01:00

Hope this works as nothing else seems to!

More Electrabel Nights

2010-01-10T18:31:00.009+01:00

Electrabel Nights

2010-01-10T17:49:00.008+01:00

The countdown

The show begins - and a plane joins in

You can't tell, but it was saying Happy New Year in different languages!

The sign-off

Happy New Year!

2010-01-03T21:05:00.002+01:00

Yes, it says minus 5°(C)! It snowed again overnight so I won't be walking to work tomorrow.

I "saw" Santa..

2010-01-03T20:46:00.007+01:00

I happen to know that the toy-painting Santa was adapted from a shoe-maker automaton - it used to raise and lower its right arm, holding a hammer, onto a little shoe on the workbench. It probably started its life in the window of a "cordonnier" but ended up in a sort of grotto they used to have in this shopping centre.
Where the saw-toting lumberjack gnome comes in, I'm not quite sure; perhaps it cut down the plastic Christmas tree? Anyway, this year these strange figures have been pressed somewhat haphazardly into service to guard the crib.

Noël à Bruxelles

2009-12-31T00:58:00.005+01:00

Ste. Catherine Christmas market and funfair

Place du Grand Sablon, the best-decorated carpark in Brussels

Rue des Tongres, my local shopping street

Christmas at St. Christopher's Place

2009-12-31T00:39:00.007+01:00

and Marylebone High Street

Christmas at Covent Garden

2009-12-31T00:26:00.008+01:00

London lights

2009-12-25T20:45:00.004+01:00

I know it looks as though I was drunk but I like it!

Oxford Street

Wet Christmas!

2009-12-25T20:36:00.003+01:00

I was wrong in forecasting a white Christmas, after all. Not that I'm complaining, hope the rain washes the snow/slush away and that it doesn't freeze tonight.

Merry Christmas to all, or whatever else you celebrate!

Back from Blighty

2009-12-23T22:28:00.008+01:00

Managed to get back from London despite the best efforts of Eurostar (services cancelled on the day I was due to travel back with them - and I was lucky to get there on Friday when a later train got stuck in the tunnel for 12 hours!) and British Airways (which luckily called off a proposed strike but flight was delayed for nearly 4 hours, 3 spent waiting in the plane for de-icing..)!

I went there mainly to see the exhibition "Maharaja - The Splendour of India's Royal Courts" at the V&A, which ends in London on 17 Jan but will then be going to Munich. I heartily recommend it especially to anyone who likes jewellery - I thought the most stunning item on display was the emerald belt of Maharaja Sher Singh, on loan from the Royal Collection: the photo here doesn't really do it justice, each of the emeralds is the size of a small bar of soap! I hate to think what any Indian visitors felt about the amount of loot on display that was basically snaffled by the East India Company. Anyway, I was reminded that one of these days I must go to Doha to visit the Museum of Islamic Art, which must have a stunning collection of Mughal jewellery, from what I have seen on loan at this exhibition and a previous one in Antwerp.

Photography wasn't allowed at the exhibition, but elsewhere in the museum I was rather taken by this Victorian "powder room":

The tiles incorporate the logo of the V&A plus crown, lion and unicorn which presumably refer to Queen Victoria

and an installation in the courtyard (John Madejski Garden) called "Mirror Mirror", by Jason Bruges Studio (more pics here).

Omnibus edition

2009-12-17T21:18:00.012+01:00

My friend L. (who, however, has herself forgotten about facebook and hasn't shown us any photos of Istanbul!) reminds me that I have been very remiss in posting this year. I actually forgot to take the camera on my last trip to England, where enjoyed a lovely day with C. in Henley, with a boat trip on the Thames and a great pub dinner at "The Angel on the Bridge", it's a shame I couldn't photograph the guys playing "conkers" on the pub's terrace - in the days before I went back to work, I had the camera with me always, but those days are long gone.

Anyway, here's a selection of things I have been doing.

Working, with 3 trips this year to South America: this is Bogota from the Hotel Fontana, no idea what the white balloons were for!

And this is the chapel at the hotel:

Caught this sunset a couple of weeks ago, how come whenever I do it's always somewhere with nothing interesting to put in front of it? (but it's nice to see that the construction industry in Brussels is still doing well!)

Running about for Christmas: in this (Irish) pub window St. Nicolas and Santa seem to be having a fight - I find it odd that the same person gave rise to separate traditions, the Belgians (and Dutch) celebrate St. Nick on the night of 5 December.

And here (as it started snowing) is a Europe-themed Christmas tree at the European Parliament:

It looks as though we are going to have a white Christmas - this was the garden of my building, this afternoon:

Off to London tomorrow!

No time Toulouse!

2009-08-11T18:42:00.015+02:00

Weekend in S.W. France

View from M's terrace in Clermont Soubiran (Lot -et-Garonne, Aquitaine)

Auvillar

Place de la Halle (Auvillar)

Eglise St. Pierre (Auvillar)

View of Espalais from Auvillar

Bridge over the Gironde River

Cusco

2009-08-07T00:22:00.003+02:00

To Machu Picchu

2009-08-07T00:15:00.004+02:00

Sacred Valley

2009-08-06T23:48:00.005+02:00

Hotel Sol Y Luna, Urubamba

Gimme alfalfa!

Moray

Maras

Salineras

View over Peru

2009-08-06T23:35:00.007+02:00

Office outing to Mechelen

2009-08-06T23:21:00.008+02:00

Wot I did next

2009-05-17T20:46:00.004+02:00

I don't remember! Working too hard, or at least too much. However, there was a short trip to Tunis (for work)

Asa banana

2008-11-24T23:20:00.000+01:00

I never realised my staple breakfast for years has been something of a fad in Japan and therefore contributes to the year's favourite expressions in Japanese.

Grand Central Station

2008-11-24T22:33:00.001+01:00

The renovations going on at Gare centrale have unexpectedly produced a wonderful new pedestrian connection from the station to the city centre, a real treat for the hordes of commuters who pour out of there every morning and back for their train home every evening.

I do like the more frequent use of coloured lighting in new buildings, we really need light in these grey days and the changing colours make everything seem so much more lively.

More than 20 years after giving it up, I still appreciate not having to do the 1 1/2 to 2-hour (each way) commute by bus, train and bus that I used to have when I was working in London! But if I still had to do it, it would cheer me up a bit to pass through this station - or at least this part of it, the rest is still in a bit of a mess.

Tourist questions and country ranking

2008-11-23T20:28:00.000+01:00

As someone who haunts the Tripadvisor forum for Belgium, and was recently looking at the ones for Switzerland and Liechtenstein, I was intrigued by some of the differences, and wondering which country had attracted the least posts. The results are largely for Europe with a few interesting numbers added from the other areas - which, if nothing else, would appear to illustrate largely North American membership (U.S. , Mexico and Canada split into States/provinces). Totally unscientific, as I couldn't be bothered to do include all TA countries, but interesting, I thought. The first number is the number of topics or question and the second the total number of posts - it seems the forums for France and the UAE attract vastly more entries per question compared with other forums, I don't know why..!
01. Yucatan Peninsula: 162,356 (1,182,842)
02. Florida: 117,878 (787,072)
03. Italy: 116,384 (574,341)
04. United Kingdom: 72,529 (559,361)
05. Spain: 72,128 (292,313)
06. France: 67,335 (402,153)
07. Thailand: 53,900(269,571)
08. Greece: 43,441 (236,585)
09. Egypt: 40,606 (245,616)
10. China: 27,933 (143,008)
11. Turkey: 24,970 (133,303)
12. India: 22,465 (115,709)
13. Costa Rica: 21,262 (94,901)
14. Ireland: 20,780 (131,179)
15. Germany: 19,264 (80,720)
16. United Arab Emirates: 14,344 (100,344)
17. Portugal: 12,869 (24,482)
18. Switzerland: 11,810 (58,775)
19. Argentina: 11, 330 (83,904)
20. Czech Republic: 11,155 (57,580)
21. Ontario: 10,994 (65,344)
22. Netherlands: 10,245 (58,615)
23. Austria: 9,086 (38,316)
24. Croatia: 7,217 (29,870)
25. Cyprus: 6,524 (29,051)
26. Poland: 5,572 (12,103)
27. Belgium: 4, 816 (19,068)
28. Hungary: 4,206 (19,745)
29. Finland: 3,874 (27,752)
30. Russia: 3,326 (14,041)
31. Malta: 3,224 (17,482)
32. Bulgaria: 3, 063 (12,615)
33. Norway: 2,914 (12,103)
34. Iceland: 2,757 (11,636)
35. Sweden: 2,546 (9,068)
36. Denmark: 1,883 (7,632)
37. Latvia: 1,579 (8,131)
38. Slovenia: 1,450 (5,636)
39. Romania: 973 (4,604)
40. Slovakia: 923 (3,953)
41. Estonia: 851 (3,586)
42. Ukraine: 619 (2,038)
43. Serbia: 542 (2,250)
44. Andorra: 485 (1,664)
45. Monaco: 442 (1,422)
46. Lithuania: 440 (1,799)
47. Gibraltar: 280 (1,179)
48. Bosnia & Herzegovina 231 (811)
49. Albania: 176 (625)
50. Luxembourg: 172 (545)
51. Montenegro: 162 (581)
52. Macedonia: 110 (374)
53. Belarus: 108 (458)
54. Moldova: 52 (123)
55. Liechtenstein: 41 (128)
56. Faroe Islands: 25 (96)
57. East Timor: 20 (83)
58. Lesotho: 2 (2)

Let there be light

2008-11-19T23:02:00.000+01:00

Unfortunately it seems the lotus lamps don't get lit after all, perhaps it would be a fire hazard! However, I did discover something called "ceiling of light" in the Grand' Place.

Lotus lamps

2008-11-16T22:02:00.000+01:00

I read that 2000 lotus lamps had been hung in the rather boring Galerie Ravenstein as part of the current "Made in Korea" festival so I hurried down to see this wonder - but in fact it's only the rotunda of the gallery that has been so decorated. Still, it's an improvement on what it usually looks like. Now I have to find the time to visit in the evening when hopefully the lamps are lit!

Merci vielmals!

2008-11-13T23:34:00.000+01:00

Freutsch or Frerman (don't lean your vélo against this wall)

Frangerglish

Liechtenstein

2008-11-13T23:24:00.000+01:00

Country no. 82 - still 18 more to go!

Some recent pix

2008-08-24T19:55:00.000+02:00

Place Royale - Modern Art Museum being renovated

This year's flower carpet

Fireworks on Belgium's National Day, 21 July (as seen from my balcony)

Outing to Leuven

More Zinnekes

2008-06-03T23:44:00.000+02:00

Zinneke Parade 2008

2008-05-31T22:39:00.000+02:00

I've just realised that as this happens every 2 years in Brussels, and started in an even year (when Brussels was "European Capital of Culture" - albeit with 7 or 8 other cities - in 2000), it occurs in the same years as the August Flower Carpet in the Grand' Place; you would have thought if a city has 2 biannual events, it would be a good idea to alternate them

Finding Nemo

2008-05-27T23:31:00.000+02:00

Thought I had found Nemo but it seems I was thinking of Dory, and on looking for the poster I could have sworn I remembered, for comparison, I can't find the image I had in mind!

Trip to Vienna

2008-05-18T22:23:00.000+02:00

To think my last trip there was 25 years ago! It's changed a bit...

Do&Co Design Hotel, opposite the cathedral

"Mozarts" on coffee break

The blue(ish) Danube

Sum up life in six words

2008-04-20T22:11:00.000+02:00

I was just reading about a book collecting six-word memoirs, entitled "Not quite what I was planning". The one I liked best was "Me see world! Me write stories!" (Elizabeth Gilbert, who seems to me to have been on much the same track already with the title of her book "Eat, Pray, Love", about stays in Italy, India and Bali).I also liked "Am I lost or just wandering?"
It seems the inspiration was an ultra-short story by Hemingway: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” I'm sure the form also features in ads like "No bells, no whistles, just juice", not to mention bumper stickers - if I had a bumper to stick one on, mine would read "So many books, so little time"..
As for my 6-word memoir: "Never the bridesmaid, never the bride" is true but too like Rip Riley's "No wife, no kids, no problems", and also a bit negative. I think I might settle on "I was a bookworm, mutatis mutandis", but only certain colleagues would understand it!

Busy in Beijing

2008-04-13T22:14:00.000+02:00

I haven't managed to blog much since I started working full-time again last year. Among other things I have had to make a couple of business trips to Beijing, and this time, after our meetings got changed about, finally had some free time for some sight-seeing. Or in the case of the Olympic stadium, site-seeing (or just-about-seeing, it was a bit hazy in the city!):
Managed to get to the Great Wall (at Mutianyu) and the Forbidden City:

Electrabel Nights

2008-01-03T22:42:00.000+01:00

New Year Wishes

2008-01-02T23:55:00.000+01:00

This year I would like rather less of this:

And more of this (business trip to Rabat, Morocco, Dec. 14 2007):

Hope everyone gets what they wish for in 2008!

Welcome to the euro

2008-01-02T23:50:00.000+01:00

Forgot to congratulate Cyprus and Malta yesterday, but today was probably the first day for spending any!

Merry Bruxmas

2007-12-29T21:13:00.000+01:00

It's Christmas!!

2007-12-24T17:53:00.000+01:00

Happy festive season to everyone

What's the alternative?

2007-11-05T23:03:00.000+01:00

Next time I'm going to suggest I shop n'stay.

Collateral damage

2007-11-04T17:42:00.000+01:00

The recent judgment against the Metropolitan Police for a catalogue of errors leading to the shooting of Jean-Charles de Menezes in a London Underground station on 22 July 2005 doesn't even touch on their botched attempts to cover themselves subsequently, by trying to blame the victim. After hearing that despite the judgment, Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair feels no responsibility for anything his staff did or didn't do, I happened upon these lines in a book by Jose Saramago ("The Double"): "The best way to achieve a universal exoneration is to conclude that since everyone is to blame, no-one is guilty."

How not to use a dictionary

2007-11-04T17:15:00.000+01:00

I pass this sign every day on the way to work and it illustrates a few perils of looking things up in dictionaries and/or using babelfish or other automatic translation programmes. Firstly, looking up each word separately in a set expression - the original should have hyphens, i.e. "prêt-à-porter"; secondly not checking for differences between nouns ("un prêt" would indeed be a loan) and adjectives/adverbs; thirdly not realising that "porter" can mean wear as well as carry, which you would have thought, in context, they might have guessed from the long list of English equivalents of "porter"; and fourthly, a basic structural word-order issue which makes "prêt-à-porter homme" in French into "men's ready-to-wear" in English. I have probably made equally bad mistakes myself in various languages but you would think someone running a business would check before paying for a sign!
However, while most of us would translate "retouche", in this context, as "alterations", I quite like the idea of a workshop of final improvement!

Brilliant Europe

2007-11-02T18:18:00.000+01:00

I don't seem to have been able to draw breath for a month, so it's a good thing we are having a 4-day weekend with the Toussaint (All Saints) holiday yesterday and "bridging" today. I therefore took myself to one of the Europalia exhibitions because although these last until February, I know that if I don't make an effort now, Europalia will have been and gone again and I won't have gone to any of the exhibitions. This year (Europalia is held every other year) instead of featuring a single country, because of the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome the theme is all the countries of Europe.

The one I managed to see is called "Brilliant Europe - Jewels from the European Courts" and was very interesting although there weren't that many things I would have liked to take away with me - a game I always play at exhibitions! Top of the list would probably be the ruby engagement ring of the Italian queens - I suppose this means it "belongs" to the House of Savoy - and a ruby and rock-crystal-topped "smelling salts" bottle that belonged to the Empress Eugénie. Naturally neither of these is illustrated in the photos on the website, although there is a pretty diamond ring there that I don't remember the history of.

There were also some lovely portraits including this one of the same Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III and the famous one - or rather a copy - of Sissi (the one on the left on here); I hadn't noticed the diamond stars in her hair before, apparently she launched a fashion for them. I just checked Eugénie's real name, which was given in the audioguide as Eugenia de Montijo, and it appears she was born Doña Maria Eugenia Ignatia Augustina de Palafox-Kirkpatrick. What a splendid name!

Blog block

2007-10-11T23:41:00.000+02:00

I don't know where the time goes, I have been shamefully neglectful of this blog. Going back to work full time on 1 October, in a new (to me) part of my organisation has been a terrible shock to the system, and half a dozen things at home decided to break down or otherwise cause problems just at the wrong moment! I hope I'll get on top of things before long and start finding some interesting things to photograph/write about. At the moment the only interesting prospect on the horizon, after postponement of a trip to China, is a possible trip to Morocco in December.. yes that's work I'm talking about! No holiday trips in sight. Sigh.

That takes the biscuit!

2007-09-19T23:22:00.000+02:00

Look what I got with my coffee today - only about 6 weeks early! I look forward to getting the Christmas holly leaves soon, and perhaps the miniature Easter eggs around Christmas.

Sticks in the mud

2007-08-30T00:24:00.000+02:00

What's brown and sticky? A stick, of course, and what is browner and stickier is a heap of them being used to make a "sculpture" called Cityscape which will fill a vacant lot opposite the Brussels Hilton until they get around to building on it at the end of next year. Belgian artist/designer Arne Quinze apparently describes it as a "deconstruction manifesto", I think it looks like the guys are building themselves a nest of frites!

Prone to confusion

2007-08-29T14:37:00.000+02:00

I know I am picky about language, but I don't really understand why the word "prone", which means "lying on one's stomach/face down" is apparently taken by some people to mean something like "lying flat" (how else can one lie, anyway?!).

In "Life Sentences" by Alice Blanchard I read: "Now she stared at the ceiling from a prone position on her motel bed." Well either this character could turn her head completely around as in "The Exorcist", or else she must have been looking at the ceiling of the room below! Or, of course, she was actually lying "supine", i.e. on her back (face up).

Burning building

2007-08-27T23:57:00.000+02:00

Looking East

I saw a strange sunrise the other morning: the sun was catching the side of a glass skyscraper on the other side of town, making it look as if it was on fire. Unfortunately I was a bit too fuzzy with sleep to focus properly, but the effect was really odd.

Looking west

Eau de Canal

2007-08-27T23:34:00.000+02:00

Here's an interestingly-named perfume I found in a local budget shop. "Ecluse" means "lock" as in "sluicegate", I can't imagine why the makers thought anyone might want to smell like one, or what sort of romantic image such a name might be expected to conjure up!

Mind you there is a better-known French perfume called "Calandre", which sounds rather nice but actually means "radiator grill"; I understand that the reference is supposed to be to a high class car like a Rolls Royce.

Life's a Beach

2007-08-06T23:23:00.000+02:00

Albeit, in Brussels, an artificial beach. Bruxelles-les-Bains is here again, by the side of the Canal de Charleroi, to the great delight of the kids as well as the boules players and (hopeful) sunworshippers.

The strange-looking artificial trees are water-sprays, which are very pleasant when it's hot - which it has been, intermittently.

Cool stuff

2007-08-02T15:12:00.000+02:00

I'm going through an acquisitive phase at the moment (I think it has something to do with compensating myself for having to go back to work this Autumn!), but I can't quite justify acquiring these:

Cute webcams by Eric Zhang

Golf theme flip-flops (known in French as "tongs", btw!) by Reef - only for guys, apparently.

Pretty (useless?) glasses, designed for an Antwerp fashion show; I wonder if one can actually see through them!

The Tenderness of Wolves

2007-07-30T21:01:00.000+02:00

It's good to challenge one's prejudices occasionally. The blurb for "The Tenderness of Wolves", by Stef Penney, begins "1867, Canada", and I would normally read no further - old plus cold doesn't sound, to me, like a winning combination. But my friend M. passed on this beautifully written novel - which won the 2006 Costa book award - and I enjoyed it very much even though it did indeed make me shiver. I also think it's one of the few books I have enjoyed that is written in the present tense. A couple of extracts:
"She considers herself a well-travelled woman, and from each place she has been to, she has brought back a prejudice as a souvenir."
"Trying to make sense of it is like trying to gather the river in his arms."

Now I learn from here that the author is a Scot and has never been to Canada, in fact she used to suffer from severe agoraphobia. How amazing that a writer can travel so vividly in her imagination, and take the reader along with her. Although, as one of the reviewers wrote, she also hadn't been to 1867, and as someone else said, the past is another country (L.P. Hartley, in "The Go-Between", which begins ""The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.").

Loo with a view

2007-07-30T18:13:00.000+02:00

The Antwerp Photo Museum is currently showing the winning Belgian photos from the Nikon Press Photo Awards. This wonderful one of a "Dame Pipi" (lavatory attendant) and a customer is by "promising young photographer" Jimmy Kets, and was taken at the Antwerp Erotic Festival - whatever that may be.

I want to be slime

2007-07-29T13:39:00.000+02:00

It would be hard to compete with Khadija Teri's finds in Libya but I found these in a shop that seems to cater mostly to Philipinos/as.

Fête Nationale

2007-07-21T19:54:00.000+02:00

Summer in the City

2007-07-19T22:00:00.000+02:00

Do yew speak cedar?

2007-06-18T16:20:00.000+02:00

Visit to La Hulpe

2007-06-18T15:17:00.000+02:00

Above, the Château Solvay (my country house, doncha know?!); below, the nearby Folon Foundation. I've always liked the rather childlike images of Belgian artist Jean-Michel Folon, especially the water colours, the huge mural ("Magic City") at Montgomery metro station, which I used to see every day, and the animated works like the one on the home page of the Foundation itself and the one that a French TV channel shows at the beginning and end of transmission, in which the letters of Antenne 2 turn into figures that get up and fly away. I'm not quite so fond of his sculptures, this one is at Brussels Airport.

Not the movers I'd choose

2007-06-17T16:29:00.000+02:00

(Fiasco and Quondamcarlo, International Removals)

The hydrangea rides again

2007-06-16T21:25:00.000+02:00

My friend D. is a huge fan of hydrangeas (hortensias in French) and I went with her last month to a garden show near Ghent to visit one of the main dealers in Belgium. I found their display a bit surreal, as they had chosen to illustrate their colour selection using dresses on headless dummies.

My favourite things at the show were the robot lawnmowers, I know there is a similar type of vacuum cleaner which I hanker after for my apartment, although I don't suppose I shall ever have one as the cost is ridiculous. I was also amused to see the ticket collectors had propped their refreshments on the bases of the urns flanking the entrance.

Asterix the gallstone

2007-06-11T22:20:00.000+02:00

It seems I have my very own pet rock ensconced in my gallbladder, which I have named after the famous comic book character created by Goscinny & Uderzo, and that "the one that got away" (Obélix?) is what was causing my problems. Anyway, May has been one big black hole but I'm much better now and reporting for blogging duty.

Blog Break

2007-05-19T20:38:00.000+02:00

Sorry, didn't realise how time had flown while I wasn't enjoying myself! I haven't been well since 1 May and have done/seen nothing worth blogging about. Hope to be back up to speed by next month.

Fitting in

2007-04-27T17:52:00.000+02:00

Is imitation the sincerest form of flattery?

What's in a Name?

2007-04-26T21:01:00.000+02:00

I happened to pass by the information office of the snappily named "Federal Public Service for the Economy, SMEs, the Middle Classes and Energy" and noticed that they had information sheets on the top 100 first names for boys and girls in Belgium, as well as a breakdown for each of the country's 3 regions, Brussels, Flanders and Wallonia. You would expect there to be a difference between names used in the Dutch- and French-speaking areas of the country, but I was curious to see what would happen in bilingual Brussels. Well, here are the top 12 names, first for girls, then for boys:

Belgium.............Brussels.......Belgium........Brussels
01. Emma **** Sarah ***** Noah ***** Mohamed
02. Marie **** Raniah **** Thomas *** Adam
03. Laura **** Yasmine*** Lucas ***** Ayoub
04. Julie ***** Salma ***** Milan ***** Nathan
05. Sarah **** Imane **** Nathan **** Mehdi
06. Clara **** Clara ****** Louis ****** Bilal
07. Manon *** Luna ****** Maxime **** Anas
08. Léa ****** Inès ****** Arthur ***** Lucas
09. Lisa ****** Emma **** Robbe ****** Maxime
10. Camille *** Ines ****** Hugo ******* Zakaria
11. Charlotte** Laura***** Mohamed *** Noah
12. Luna ***** Chloé ***** Nicolas ***** Rayan

I think they tell an interesting story! I'm surprised at Luna (no. 7 in Flanders, 12 in Belgium), Océane (ocean) (9 in Wallonia, 22 in Belgium), and Kato (19 in Flanders) or Cato, for girls, and for boys, at Kobe (9 in Flanders, 23 in Belgium) , and some very Scandinavian- sounding names, like Lars, Jens and Niels in the list for Flanders.

Well at least they don't have the peculiar names allowed in England. For example I remember Astroflash being recorded in Glastonbury, Somerset, where there are a lot of hippies and "new age" people, I always thought it sounded like a floor cleaner (poor child). I also used to have a British colleague who rejoiced in the name of Endymion, I always wondered what his mother would call when his dinner was ready.

Dyslexia lures, k.o.!

2007-04-23T23:41:00.000+02:00

Choc-u-lator

2007-04-23T21:23:00.000+02:00

I'm not altogether sure that this would be a good idea - but I think I want one!

Nature v. Nurture

2007-04-19T21:50:00.000+02:00

It's an old debate. A friend and colleague was told by a trainer yesterday that only 5% of what we are results from our genes, for the rest "everything is re-wirable". But I disagree: it is possible that Leonardo da Vinci COULD have been 95% NOT a genius, if he had been "re-wired" by a different upbringing and education, but it seems to me that circumstances would have had to have been pretty dire to repress his abilities to that extent. Certainly human beings are adaptable, but I do not believe fundamental things like sexual orientation and basic character traits can be altered, even if they could be driven underground, or expressed in different ways depending on the opportunities/obstacles encountered in life.

Of course, a trainer probably has to take such a view, after all, he was trying to persuade people that they could learn different ways of reacting in specific circumstances. And as regards the skills we acquire in life, of course these are learned and not inherited, even if we must be "hot-wired" for language-acquisition (but some more "hotly wired" than others?) and some other basic abilities needed to acquire these skills. I do believe education ought to include as much as possible a search for the various gifts an individual might possess, but which are not quite strong enough to emerge of their own accord: who knows how many individuals with musical ability, who have never had the chance to discover it, die with the music still in them?

Reflections

2007-04-18T23:15:00.000+02:00

Biker bear

2007-04-16T22:28:00.000+02:00

Bits from books

2007-04-14T09:54:00.000+02:00

"No matter what they wish for, no matter how far they go, people can never be anything but themselves" (from "Birthday Girl", in "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman" by Haruki Murakami)
"I was surprised that Buenos Aires was so majestic from the second or third storey upwards and so dilapidated at street level, as if the splendor of the past had remained suspended in the heights and refused to descend or disappear" (from "The Tango Singer" by Tomas Eloy Martínez, trad. Anne McLean)
"He moved with the grace of a refrigerator" (from "The Falling Palace" by Dan Hofstadter)
(Could be a description of me attempting to dance the tango.. or anything else for that matter.)

Brave new word

2007-04-14T09:45:00.000+02:00

"They call themselves pyjamahideen. Instead of galloping off to fight holy wars, they stay at home, meaning, often as not, in their parents' homes, and clatter about computer keyboards..."
From the article "Bloggers may be the real opposition" (in Egypt) in yesterday's Economist (cf. mujahid, pl. mujahideen).

Otango

2007-04-13T18:27:00.000+02:00

Didn't get around to posting about this show a few months ago, partly because I wasn't able to take any photos that did it justice; but now that it is on again in Brussels the organisers have sent me some, which is very nice of them! I've been a tango aficionado(/a?) since seeing a demonstration in the Argentinian pavillion at Expo 92 in Seville - but only for watching, despite an abortive attempt with L. at learning how to do it. I don't think my legs work the same way as those of Argentinian ladies!

I also found a great video of this show on YouTube but it has been driving me mad attempting to post it here - first YouTube said there was a problem because of the upgrade to Blogger2; and indeed, this has changed everyone's user name to their e-mail address; then I tried to edit video posting details in You Tube to my new blogger/google user name, but realised that my e-mail address was too long for the box; after much searching, it appears google account user name can only be an e-mail address, so the only way to get a shorter one is to change addresses! So then I created a gmail account which google automatically made my new blogger user name, and this is (again) short enough for YouTube. However, no matter what I do to change this in YouTube, when I try to post a video it keeps telling me the blogger user name/password is incorrect or I don't have access to the blog in question. And I don't think I made a mistake typing my password. Anyway, I give up, I'll have to give links instead. Apparently google/blogger don't tango with YouTube!

How Bendy is Your Banana?

2007-04-12T17:07:00.000+02:00

Stu's recent musings on bananas remind me that I haven't yet mentioned a new gadget I acquired on my last trip to London, called a "banana guard". Its usefulness has so far proved limited because:

a) I haven't actually needed to carry any bananas around recently, and
b) my bananas seem to be either a bit too bendy or not quite bendy enough to fit, here I have had to squooch the stalk a bit to get it in the box.

Although, the box is designed with quite a long straight bit, to accommodate straighter or bendier bananas, depending on which EU standards they meet... even if much of what is said on that subject stems from another euro-myth.

Thumb and thumber

2007-04-11T22:48:00.000+02:00

Inspired by boo's HNT photo - and I note that she is already in Thursday when I am still enjoying Wednesday, I got all dizzy for a moment when I saw the date of April 12th on her post!

You Are the Thumb

You're unique and flexible. And you defy any category.
Mentally strong and agile, you do things your own way. And you do them well.
You are a natural leader... but also truly a loner. You inspire many but connect with few.

You get along well with: The Middle Finger

Stay away from: The Pinky

What Finger Are You?

Flying footwear

2007-04-11T18:08:00.000+02:00

Wonder who went home barefoot..!

Tiger-fishing in Zambia

2007-04-10T22:48:00.000+02:00

I'm thinking this must have been produced by automatic translation from, perhaps, French. "Charts of Master or visa", i.e. Mastercard and Visa cards, could come from "cartes visa" etc., and "comprenant" can mean either "understanding" or, as should have been selected here, "including"; presumably the slash means the translation system was trying to indicate ambiguity.
But I'm puzzled as to what the original could have been for some of the following "The activities of guard include orders of play, orders of night, walks of nature or trails of horse. Other activities in the sector can be arranged, and include cruisings of boat on the street Lucia or the dam Jozini, guided open play of vehicle driven in Hluhluwe-Imfolozi, tribal dancing at a village of Zulu, the fishing of tiger, the treatments of beauty and a crowd of activities sea-based including/understanding the deep-sea diving of fishing and diving-suit."
I did wonder about finding tigers in Africa, but it seems the reference is to tigerfish!

Last from Italy - Brescia

2007-04-10T19:34:00.000+02:00

Brescia's wealth was originally based on manufacturing weapons and armour, not particularly interesting to me, but I did like this foot-armour!

A particularly Italian concept is "fare la bella figura" which might be translated as "putting on a good front" - here is a church doing just that!